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It's insanely more comfortable to be unemployed where your healthcare isn't tied to your employment. I choose free healthcare over employer supplied health ins

by eterm 8y ago

It's insanely more comfortable to be unemployed where your healthcare isn't tied to your employment. I choose free healthcare over employer supplied health insurance every day.

nraynaud 8y ago
It’s not free, it’s universal. You pay for, it but the insurer is less cynical.
- eterm 8y ago
  Well it's effectively free if you're life-long unemployed. But almost more importantly, the healthcare isn't being delivered by companies trying to make a profit but from central funding instead. Sometimes that means making really difficult decisions such as NICE refusing to fund a cystic fibrosis drug because the US pharmaceutical company wants to charge $138,000[1] per patient per year. But those difficult decisions mean the limited funding (and no funding can be infinite) can be targeted and spent to deliver the most benefit as a whole. Heart-breaking for those with children with C.F. but hopefully the U.S. drug company will soon back down. If it weren't for brexit they likely would have done so already. This article explains NICE's QALY (Quality adjusted life year) methodology: https://www.nice.org.uk/news/blog/carrying-nice-over-the-threshold https://www.nice.org.uk/news/blog/carrying-nice-over-the-thr... One of the most important reasons to resist the privatisation of healthcare is because it would actually lead to worse outcomes for the same money spent as the decisions of where to direct funding would be less evidence based. You're right, it's not free, and in fact needs more investment to prevent it being privatised. Britons spend less on healthcare than most, even in fact spending less per person than the US does through taxation alone[2]. [1] https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l1094 https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l1094 [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42950587 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42950587

by eterm 8y ago

It's insanely more comfortable to be unemployed where your healthcare isn't tied to your employment. I choose free healthcare over employer supplied health insurance every day.

nraynaud 8y ago

It’s not free, it’s universal. You pay for, it but the insurer is less cynical.

eterm 8y ago
Well it's effectively free if you're life-long unemployed. But almost more importantly, the healthcare isn't being delivered by companies trying to make a profit but from central funding instead. Sometimes that means making really difficult decisions such as NICE refusing to fund a cystic fibrosis drug because the US pharmaceutical company wants to charge $138,000[1] per patient per year. But those difficult decisions mean the limited funding (and no funding can be infinite) can be targeted and spent to deliver the most benefit as a whole. Heart-breaking for those with children with C.F. but hopefully the U.S. drug company will soon back down. If it weren't for brexit they likely would have done so already. This article explains NICE's QALY (Quality adjusted life year) methodology: https://www.nice.org.uk/news/blog/carrying-nice-over-the-threshold https://www.nice.org.uk/news/blog/carrying-nice-over-the-thr... One of the most important reasons to resist the privatisation of healthcare is because it would actually lead to worse outcomes for the same money spent as the decisions of where to direct funding would be less evidence based. You're right, it's not free, and in fact needs more investment to prevent it being privatised. Britons spend less on healthcare than most, even in fact spending less per person than the US does through taxation alone[2]. [1] https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l1094 https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l1094 [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42950587 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42950587